I currently work as a .net developer and have coming up to 3 years experience in

Question

I currently work as a .net developer and have coming up to 3 years experience in the industry as well as a degree in computer science specifically software engineering (I know that means nothing but just wanted to explain that I'm not your general back bedroom programmer).

When I finished Uni, I started contracting for a company. I wont mention their name but some of you may have heard of them just by the description. Basically they take in fresh graduates and in return for training and contracting experience you have to go to the clients they say for a minimum of two years. I cant say this was great but I do feel I know more than people with the same years of experience as me.

The problem is that I've now started heading down the route of web development because of the lack of choice in clients.

How difficult is it to change from a .net field to embedded/low level programming? I have the enthusiasm for it and the strive but I'm not quite sure how to go about moving. Unlike application development, knowing the language and having some business etiquette doesn't seem to be enough.

For example hardware wise I can set-up a computer but wouldn't know how to manually attached wires and program these systems. Is this kind of knowledge necessary?

Thank you in advance. Also if anyone has similar experience of swapping, should I?

tl;dr

Developer that doesn't know how to get from web development roles into embedded systems.

Explanation / Answer

First: Going from .NET to embedded development through the conventional route is likely to be difficult, given the propensity of HR departments to throw away any resume that doesn't have all the buzzwords the hiring managers say they want to see.

The way you work around this is you get active in the local electronics and computing hobby communities, talk to EVERYONE, while learning the craft. You'll hear about opportunities this way. You hang out at the local MakerSpaces. You get involved in other things. (I heard about one project that was DESPERATE for software help, when I went to a talk at a ham radio convention. Some hams in Texas were setting up an intercity packet radio network. They could handle the radio stuff and the electronics stuff, but they knew nothing about how to write the necessary software.)

For the simple mechanics of learning basic embedded system development, you start by learning basics of making things happen in the real world.

Arduino is a surprisingly capable board for small embedded projects, with a development environment that was designed from the ground up to be usable by non-programmers who were willing to learn basics of programming. There are lots of tutorials, that cover both basics of embedded programming AND how to hook up basic hardware.

Teensy 3.0 is a 32-bit ARM board with similar goals to Arduino. It is not nearly as widely used as Arduino. Tutorials exist.

Both are quite inexpensive. Arduino has a much larger ecosystem of available peripheral boards ("shields").

There are Sagans ("billions and billions") of PIC boards out there, and Sagans of PIC tutorials, for hardware and software.

All of these things do require you to learn some basic electronics. It won't kill you. You are going to have to invest some money in tools. The good news is that most of the tools you need are amazingly affordable these days, if you are willing to buy secondhand.

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